Crush
by annicaspoon
Summary: An infatuation; to defeat or humiliate utterly; to become injured, broken, or distorted by pressure. Spitfire Week, day three.


**My entry for day three of Spitfire Week. I think this is the only entry that's actually worth putting up on here.**

**~o~**

Prompt: Crush  
>a. an infatuation<br>b. to defeat or humiliate utterly; to let down  
>c. to become injured, broken, or distorted by pressure<p>

Wally shifted his back slightly. He was starting to get restless. And it didn't help that he was pinned from the hips down by the same collapsed ceiling that had cornered him away from everyone else.

"Are you alright?"

At least, him and a certain blonde archer.

He grunted his response. It was all he could be bothered doing at that moment. His companion drummed her fingers on the concrete underneath them, a nervous habit of hers. "Can you still feel your legs?" Wally resisted the urge to roll his eyes; Artemis had been asking him the same question every two minutes since they had become stuck there.

He focussed his attention to his legs. It felt wrong that he couldn't move them; he thought having to sit still during school was bad, but his current position was worse than that, tenfold. He wiggled his toes, feeling a soft tingle in his feet. He bit his lip. It felt like the pile of debris was getting heavier; he wasn't sure what he found worse, the pressure from the many pounds on his legs, or the aching temptation to move them.

"Wally?"

He grimaced, "Yeah, I can feel them," he said, continuing to wiggle his toes, "I'm starting to get pins and needles though."

"Shit." He couldn't see her, but he heard Artemis kick the floor. "What is taking them so long?" Wally didn't answer, normally he would've have made a snide remark, but he was too down on himself to do anything besides stay where he was and wait.

"Look Wally," As she spoke, Wally closed his eyes and held his breath, "Do you want to talk about it?"

He released the held breath. "It" was something that he most definitely did not want to talk about. "It" was the reason that they were stuck in this position in the first place.

The team had been called to investigate strange movements at an old factory in New York. A simple enough mission, the biggest worry for them was the possibility of Superboy breaking something. Though of course, something _had _to happen to cause problems for them, and that something _had _to involve him.

He had no idea how he didn't see it coming, no-one else had seemed shocked like he was, so it must have been obvious enough. Was he really that dense to not notice a whole relationship?

His natural instinct forced him to run as soon as he saw them. It was a general reaction for him. Just run away from everything. Robin barely had time to call his name before he was gone. He heard Aqualad call him over the com, but didn't answer, and vaguely heard Artemis volunteer to go after him. She had found him darting in circles around one of the larger rooms. "Wally, come on," she yelled, watching him as he whirled around the room, "We've got a job to do."

He had ignored her, darting into the next room. The archer followed him. She came across him leaning against the wall next to the door, breathing heavily and staring at the floor. "Come on," she had said to him, and he turned towards her, before promptly speeding off again.

Unfortunately by that point, he hadn't been watching where he was running, and they'd found out after that they had stumbled upon an area of the building that was off-limits. All it took was for Kid Flash to run into one of the supports to discover exactly why it was off-limits.

And then everything just collapsed, placing them into the situation they were currently in.

But all of that wasn't the "it" Artemis was referring to. The fact that it was his fault and the growing pressure on his legs would've been a lot easier to handle than "it".

"So what? You're just gonna lie there and not say anything?" He could picture Artemis rolling her eyes as she spoke. "Normally I'd say that's a relief."

Wally closed his eyes. "I can't talk about it. Not to-" he stopped before the sentence was finished, but he was sure Artemis got the point. He couldn't talk about it to her.

The silence that followed seemed to thicken the atmosphere of the room, broken only by the continuous drumming of Artemis' fingers. He focussed on the drumming, trying to take his mind off the growing weight on the lower half of his body.

Their little cavern went completely silent as Artemis paused in her drumming. She let the silence extend on for a while before breathing in deeply. "Then you could pretend I'm Robin," she muttered.

Wally kept quiet as he considered it. She was definitely annoying enough to pretend to be his best friend, but the fact was that Artemis wasn't Robin, and Wally still wasn't sure whether he actually trusted her or not.

He was still mulling over the suggestion when his mouth decided to move before his brain did. "I honestly thought I had a chance," he said, "but I don't think I was even considered." He pulled at a seam on his uniform. "Do you think she even noticed?"

"Oh, she noticed," Wally felt like someone just dropped another hundred pound block on him with Artemis' words. "But…" He heard her sigh and shift on the floor.

"I mean, whenever I make a comment about Superboy being hot," Wally rolled his eyes, "no-one ever really takes it seriously, because I'm just messing around, that's just me. I assumed you were the same with Megan. Maybe she did too."

Screw the possibility of having the debris collapse even further and crush him to death, Wally needed to get out of there. And get far, far away. Or maybe being crushed to death wasn't such a bad idea; it couldn't be any worse the humiliation he was feeling now. He balled his hands into fists and pressed them up against his forehead, in an attempt to push the last hour out of his memory. When that didn't work, he thumped them against the floor. Eyes scrunched shut and biting his lip, he continued to punch the floor, muttering expletives under his breath.

"Wally…" Artemis whispered, "Just calm down for a sec. It's probably not a good idea to move too much."

Sure enough, Wally could feel the pile slip slightly on his legs. He stopped attacking the floor and laid still, breathing heavily. He saw to his right that Artemis had moved next to him, her back towards their barrier so she was facing him.

Wally turned his head the other way, not wanting Artemis to see his face. The only sound that echoed through the temporary cave was the sound of Wally's heavy, uneven breathing, and the soft, quiet breathing of Artemis.

"I really liked her," Wally whispered, needing to say it, but not wanting to say it loud enough for Artemis to hear. Evidently she did though, he could tell from the way she shifted uncomfortably after he said it. He closed his eyes and tried to pretend that he wasn't completely embarrassing himself in front of Artemis, especially when he was sure she was going to bag him out for it later. He wasn't even sure why he was opening up to her in the first place, he figured that it was the fact that he was trapped and need to run something off; and his thoughts were the only thing that could go anywhere.

His focus was broken by the sensation of a warm hand slipping itself into his. Artemis avoided his eyes when he looked up at her, and instead focussed on the linkage between them.

"You know what? Screw Megan." Wally frowned at her, confused. She met his eyes and gave a quick smile. "You'll find someone else, someone better, someone that doesn't fall for angsty kryptonian clones." She squeezed his hand slightly, and then attempted to pull away, but Wally held it tight.

"Don't." He said.

Artemis relaxed and allowed her hand to stay, "Alright," she whispered. They stayed like that for a while until Wally broke the silence.

"Just a question," he frowned, "why are you being so nice to me?"

Artemis rolled her eyes. "Despite what everyone thinks, I'm not a total bitch. You're lying under a ton of crap right now, real or metaphorical, I'm not about to add to that." Up until that point, Wally had almost forgotten about his trapped situation.

"So you really reckon I'll find someone better?"

"Use your scientific brain Wally, I'm sure you could think of some reason to prove that there's someone else out there for you."

He smiled squeezed her hand. _I think I already have._

**~o~**

**Oh, so corny. Please review!**


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